FC Košice v. Anane Tidjani & Al-Rayan Club

Beninese player Anane Tidjani left Slovak club FC Košice after his temporary visa expired and the club had not secured the proper work permit needed for him to remain and play legally in Slovakia.

Applying CAS's established three-part test for whether a unilateral termination is justified — that the breach relied upon must be material, that the non-breaching party cannot reasonably be expected to continue the relationship, and that termination may only be used as a last resort — the Sole Arbitrator held this squarely on the club: it is the employer's duty, not the player's, to secure the visa and work permit needed for a foreign player to work legally in the host country. A player cannot reasonably be expected to independently know and navigate another country's immigration requirements — that responsibility rests with the club that recruited him internationally.

Because Košice's own failure to sort out his documentation forced Tidjani to leave Slovakia when his visa expired, the panel found he had just cause to terminate. The appeal was partially upheld only to adjust the resulting compensation figure — a clear, useful precedent for any club recruiting foreign players internationally about where the legal responsibility for immigration paperwork actually sits.